Joint NGO Submission to the UNESCO Reactive Monitoring Mission regarding Wood Buffalo National Park

October 5, 2026

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• Bison
• Boreal Forest
• Climate Change
• Energy
• Issues
• Land Use
• National Parks
• Oil Sands
• Tailings
• Uncategorized
• Wood Buffalo National Park

 

Alberta Wilderness Association, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), CPAWS Northern Alberta and Keepers of the Water submitted information for consideration to the UNESCO Reactive Monitoring Mission regarding Wood Buffalo National Park.

We wrote to express our collective concern and input with regards to the deterioration of Outstanding Universal Values (OUV) of Wood Buffalo National Park World Heritage Site.

Since the last Reactive Monitoring Mission in 2022, pressures on the region have continued to mount:

1. Climate Change: Alberta has continued to experience the impacts of a changing climate. The province’s worst fire year on record was 2023, during which fires consumed 2.2 million hectares1 — more than double the previous record and nearly seven times more than the historical average (Natural Resources Canada 2024).
2. Political shifts: Canada has been moving away from its climate commitments and environmental standards through new regulations and legislation such as the Building Canada Strong Act, citing industrial development and economic growth as their top priorities.
3.  Alberta introduced the International Agreements Act: The Act makes the World Heritage Convention non-binding in areas intersecting with Alberta’s jurisdiction. Under this provincial Act, international agreements entered into by Canada are non-binding in Alberta in matters that fall under provincial jurisdiction, unless the agreement or its specific terms pass through Alberta’s legislature.
4. Oil Sands Treat and Release: Growing liability of tailings ponds and threat of tailings release into the Athabasca River as Canada and Alberta prepare regulations to permit the release.
5. Threats to migratory birds and other biodiversity: Negative impacts to migratory birds continue to be observed throughout the region.
6. Canada-Alberta energy agreements: Canada and Alberta have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with regards to building a new west coast pipeline.
7. Alberta’s mandate to double oil and gas: Premier Smith has mandated all ministries to allow for the doubling of oil and gas production across Alberta. This new mandate is being prioritized above all else.
8. Continued negative impacts to Treaty Rights: Indigenous communities in the Park region continue to experience infringements to their Rights.

In light of our concerns, our recommendations are:

1. Protect the rights-holders, stewards, species, and waters upon which this Park relies.
2. The Reactive Monitoring Mission should assess progress based on demonstrated ecological improvements and the reduction of threats to the Park’s Outstanding Universal Value.
3. A federal tailings risk assessment must be completed immediately, and federal regulatory tools put in place that elevate ecological and human health protection, ponds clean-up, leak prevention, and de-emphasize industry-driven effluent release permits.
4. Monitoring must lead to management action.
5. Major projects and cumulative effects must be considered as part of the threats to the Park.
   6) State of Conservation reporting should accurately reflect remaining challenges.
   7) Long-term federal commitment beyond the current Action Plan timeline.
   8) Wood Buffalo National Park should be listed as a World Heritage Site In Danger.

 

Read our full submission here: Joint NGO submission